Memoir of an Old Shinobi
by Gomdzsabbar
Summary: {This was my first try at writing. While it will be always close to my heart, looking back almost a year it is sadly nowhere near up to the standard I expect from other authors so I can't continue it as it is. I will leave it up but it is not connected to my other story, that is meant as a stand alone one-shot}
1. Prologue

**Memoir of an Old Shinobi: Prologue  
**

The old man once again watched the sunrise above Konoha from his home on the Hokage Mountain. Just as the last few thousand times, he still found joy in looking over the village, his village. Despite his obvious age, each morning when he looked over Konoha once more, he felt like he was a young man, rather than the 124 year old bag of bones he was.

When the clock hit seven, out of habit he glanced at the prepared pen and papers on his desk. At the top of the paper there was a single line:

 _Arakumo Takeshi: Memoir of an Old Shinobi_

However unlike before, he didn't drag himself downstairs where his housekeeper waited for him with his morning tea, instead he paused and smiled, letting his few remaining teeth see the world.

"Hehh. I guess I really don't have anything else to do," he thought aloud as he slowly sat down before the desk. "Akira-chan I won't be down before lunch so feel free to take the morning off," he yelled downstairs.

"Thank you, Takeshi-sama," came the upbeat response from her.

"Well let's do this" he murmured and with a well-practiced flourish he started writing:

I have not written anything similar to a diary or a memoir in my life. I never felt the need to. Everything I had to know about myself was in my head as I was blessed with an almost impeccable memory. Yet now that I near my death, for I feel it in my bones that my end is coming, I decided to write one. I probably have a year or two left in me at best, but before welcoming my death with a smile I still wish to do this one thing, write down my life as I remember it, not the twisted, glorified version the history books tell.

I have lived a long life. A life filled with many victories as the Fifth Hokage of our village. This story, unlike the others will include my struggles, my failures and the darkness that came with the life of a shinobi, not just shining triumphs that you have all heard about on so many occasions.

But where should I start to keep you interested in this old man's rambling? The Continental War that happened 47 years ago? The Attack of the Fallen? The Breaking? The Fourth Shinobi World War? The Third Shinobi World War? The Second Shinobi World War? I have lived through so much during my life, yet perhaps the best (and most logical) would be if I started at the very beginning, at my birth.

So listen up kids, let me tell you a tale how a fun loving, optimistic child has grown up to be the Shinigami no Konoha, how he was forged in fire and blood to become the Fifth Hokage, how he lived and fought for these beautiful sunrises above Konoha. So listen up for this story will be one you shall never forget…

 **Author note:  
Hi guys (and girls)!**  
 **Gomdzsabbar here with my first story. This is merely a prologue, I will upload the first chapter soon. After a few years of lurking around the site this is my fist try at writing a story. I welcome every review and feel free to go as hard on me as you want with the critics (even if my 1. language is not English that is NOT an excuse for mistakes). Hopefully this "chapter" at least caught your interest even if it is a bit on the short side.**


	2. Childhood

**Chapter 1**

 _Birth_

Arakumo Takeshi was born on the 22nd of January in 33 AF (After Founding) to a pair of shinobi parents who both held chunin rank in Konoha. Despite the tense atmosphere that hung through the Elemental Nations, their happiness was boundless at his birth… even if during it one of them wasn't feeling quite so positive.

"Daisuke you idiot! You are not coming near me with that thing between your legs ever again!" yelled an angry female voice, noticeably in pain.

"Calm down Hiromi, it's almost over" tried to placate his wife the soon to be father.

"I CHANGED MY MIND YOU BLACK HAIRED BASTARD! COME HERE SO I CAN MAKE YOU FEELTHE PAIN THAT I AM-"

"One last push," came the calm and collected command from the doctor. The other two, used to taking orders, instantly stopped arguing and concentrated on the only important matter at hand.

Hiromi quickly took a calming breath even as the sweat could be seen glistening on her arms from the effort, for even as a kunoichi, giving birth was a great ordeal. She pulled her light brown hair away from her eyes and with a low grunt pushed again, hopefully for the last time. And it was over. The doctor seemed to know his job, as it was indeed the last great push and with it a smile graced her tired features for she knew her child, her little Takeshi was born.

* * *

 _3 months old  
_

"Well everything seems to be in order, young Takashi seems to be still in a picture perfect health after his 3. month" said the nurse with a smile as he gave back Takeshi to his mother.

"Yes he is quite energetic! Just yesterday he crawled from his little playing mattress in the living room, all the way to the bathroom when I was cleaning the kitchen. Almost gave me a heart attack," told Hiromi.

"Wow he is developing quite fast then, usually even shinobi children only start that around their 5. month," told her the nurse in surprise.

"Well, well, my Shi-chan is a little genius already," laughed the young mother" but anyway, I have to get going Daisuke will be coming home from a month of border patrol, so I want cook something delicious to celebrate his return."

"Go on already, I will fill in the paperwork for your checkup. And don't forget to tell me if he continues to develop this quickly, so I can add in a few tests to document early developers. One of the doctors is trying to write a paper about it" said the nurse shooing Hiromi out the door.

"Of course, of course, see you in a month!" yelled Hiromi behind her shoulders.

* * *

 _8 months old  
_

"Kaattan! Kaattan! Kaattan!"

"Daisuke! Come quick, Shi-chan is saying his first words!" exclamined Hiromi. A crash could be heard from upstairs as a sleepy shinobi tumbled down.

"I am here! I bet it was Tou-chan!" said the now wide awake husband.

"Say it again, Shi-chan for mommy."

"Kaattan!"

"No way! Say Tou-chan now. Tou-chan, Tou-chan. Come one!" said in a mock despair.

"Tottan!" responded Takeshi with a gummy smile while giggling at his parents' exuberant behavior.

"YESSS!" shouted Daisuke as he started dancing in joy. This led into another laughing fit from the part of Takeshi, finding the weird moves of the black haired shinobi extremely funny.

"Our little Shi-chan is growing up so fast he is already talking. Our little genius!" laughed Hiromi. It looked as if nothing could shatter their happiness.

* * *

 _3 years old  
_

"Kacchan look I did, look I did," yelled Takeshi as he run into the kitchen on his small legs with a huge smile on his face. "The paper don't come off!"

"Wha-! Is that chakra? You sticked it to your hands?" said a shell-shocked Hirmi.

"Yes, Tocchan showed to do it before cuz it was windy"

"Oh dear! Shi-chan I am so proud of me, my little genius."

At the evening of that day the young parents could be found quietly talking with each other while Takeshi was already half-asleep in his room. It was obvious from their animated movements that they were arguing quite heavily about something.

"-that's why we should start training him! Peace is already over, now the question is when the war will start? Iwa is already on the move, they are pressuring Kusagakure and Amegakure both economically and militarily. Ame has Hanzo but Kusa? It is only a matter of time before they break and the less we speak about Tanigakure's military strength compared to Suna's the better. Enemies are closing in all around us and with Shi-chan's genius he will graduate in 2 years at most even if we don't teach him a thing!" Daisuke tried to persuade his wife with quiet determination shining through his dark brown eyes.

"I will not have him thrown into a battlefield before he even lived half a decade! Is that the life you want for our child? Having the bloody fields of war as his kindergarten?" yelled Hiromi rising her voice. Tears slowly started forming in the corner of her eyes as she already knew she was going to lose the argument. Every time they had one with her husband he always won.

"We already told Hokage-sama of him, he is already expecting Shi-chan in the Academy when he turns five. Such is the life of someone blessed with talent," said the shinobi with a morose tone "Let's give him the best chance possible to survive and who knows, the war may be already over by the time he becomes genin."

"I know, I know I just…" said Hiromi as she let out a sad sigh gathering her willpower, the kunoichi in her shining through "Tomorrow I will start his training."

This marked Takeshi's start on the long road known as the life of shinobi. First they started him on light stretches and small games that improved dexterity. He took to it like a duck to water, improving at an astounding rate both in the simple chakra control exercises and the beginner katas they taught him.

While Takeshi has enjoyed his training immensely, he soon begun to notice that his parents' faces started to be marred with stressed frowns, until one day his parents came into the living room with heavy expressions and sat him down in the living room. Tension rose in the air as the young parents gathered their thoughts.

"Son, you will be 4 in 3 months and while I know it is hard to understand at such an age: know that there is war. As we are ninjas, your mother and I are called by our duty to protect Konoha," said Daisuke in a strong voice "You will be living with one of the wartime child groups the other ninja parents leave their children in…"

* * *

 _4 years old  
_

Like many other kids Takeshi couldn't really understand the true implications of the war until later it hit him in the chest in the most horrible way it could've. One day a grim faced chunin arrived to the childcare group where the clan less ninjas' children were looked after. He spoke a few soft words with the lead matron who then called Takeshi to them.

"Well little guy, I can't find a good way to day this," told him the shinobi in a subdued tone "Your parents are not coming back, they have fallen in the line of duty, protecting Konohagakure no Sato."

With but a single sentence the precious bubble of Takeshi's childhood was shattered in winds of the Second Shinobi World War. Most child would have cried for days in confusion or simply not understood what they heard or perhaps would have forgotten it. But in this situation his genius was more of a curse for even if he didn't fully understand it, he knew that he would never see his parents every again. And so it happened that Arakumo Takeshi became an orphan at the tender age of 4.

His parents' house was leased by the village to them, so with their death without any relatives the only place that was left for him to go was one of the many Konoha orphanages. The first few weeks flew by in a strange kind of numbness. It was as if he was seeing the world through and grey tinted glasses, however children perhaps because they are not nearly as set in their ways as the adults, have a remarkable ability to heal and so slowly he had begun to see the world with colors once more.

* * *

 _4 and a half years old  
_

As he looked around himself months after he arrived at the orphanage Takeshi realized how the air was heavy with sadness as each week a few more orphans joined them. 'This is not right,' thought Takeshi 'even if they lost their moms and dads too, I don't want them to be so sad. Kaa-chan always said children should smile.' With determined steps he went up to one of the older boys sitting alone, Aido if he remembered correctly and mustered the biggest happiest smile he could.

"Hi! I am Takeshi! Wanna play ninja with me?" he told the boy in an exuberant voice.

"…I don't really want to" responded Aido in a soft tone "I am waiting for Kaa-chan to come and get me."

"Well while waiting we can play ninja! I will even let you be the Hokage and me the evil nuke nin!" told Takeshi.

"Sure, but remember the Hokage always wins" said the now interested brown haired boy.

Soon they were playing and the little garden once again rang from laughter as more and more kids joined in on the fun, momentarily forgetting their situation. Time passed and the war made the number of orphans swell, but the orphanage still remained a place of smiles and laughter, for Takeshi always made sure to smile, if not for himself then all the others so they would never forget how to be happy.

Yet all things must come to an end and so had his life at the orphanage after his fifth birthday. One day a jonin came and the matrons gathered some of the children including Takeshi. The youngest other than him was almost seven years old.

"Hi guys!" said the female jonin with a smile "I am Karemi Izumi, but you can call me Izumi-nee. I came here to tell that you guys have the chance to become ninja! You can ask me anything and I will answer you about all the fun stuff a ninja of Konoha does." Her smile was infectious and even Takeshi couldn't stop himself from giving her a small one.

"Ne ne Izumi-nee?! Will we learn cool jutsus? I wanna be like Hokage-sama and save princesses with super cool jutsus." exclamined one of the orphans.

"Of course, let me show you one," she answered as she made three hand seals in the blink of an eye, and suddenly where there was one kunoichi before, there were three. "And there are so many others like breathing fire, walking up on walls without hands. You will learn all those things and so much more," Izumi said while the clones disappeared in a cloud of smoke "you will also get your own apartment too! All you have to do is sign up to the Academy and start during the spring."

Perhaps it was cruel to manipulate them into become shinobi, perhaps not, yet as the war got worse and worse, the demand for manpower increased so Konoha tried to bolster her numbers with the easiest available population, the orphans who were the concern of none, simply a drain on the village founds. But could it be really called manipulation when almost every single one of them dreamed of becoming a ninja? Who knows… all that remained for certain is that with the arrival of Izumi, all 9 of the gathered kids signed up to become one of the many protectors of Konohagakure no Sato.

 **Author note:  
Hi Gomdzsabbar here! Love it? Hate it? Just as always I welcome any kind of critic. I decided that the first chapter would be used to give Takeshi a little background by showing some interesting and important moments of his childhood and hinting a bit of his personality. While it is not a really fun and action filled chapter, I believe that it's important to get a rough picture of his background. Also before I get burned on a stake for putting a genius as the protagonist, I am NOT creating a Mary-sue story. I simply decided to try my hand at writing how a genius would realisticly live in the Elemental Nations. (poor guy doesn't even know what awaits him :( )**

 **Anyway the next chapter will be a bit more interesting as there will be a bit more action in it so stay tuned :). Hopefully I will upload it soon as it is already finished, but in a dire need of proof reading (the woes of not having English as your 1. language).**


	3. First steps

**Chapter 2**

The Academy was located directly at the base of the Hokage Mountain so Takeshi found it easily. 'So this is where I will spend my next few years' he thought as he walked through the red doors. His classroom 1-E was easily found so he stepped in with almost 25 minutes to spare, meaning he was the only one to be already there. He took a middle seat in the lecture style room.

Soon others started to trickle in and the rows slowly filled up. His two desk mates were both obviously civilian. They made some small talk where he learned that the brown haired seven year old kid on his left was called Ichirou who came from a small merchant family. On his right sat a similarly brown haired seven year old, Daichi. They talked and joked around until 8 o'clock, when a big bear of a chunin walk into the classroom slamming down a big pile of papers, silencing the room of Academy students.

"Listen up brats! My name is Imeune Katsuro! I will be your teacher in the shinobi arts in the foreseeable future. You will always address me as either Sir or Katsuro-sensei," said the shinobi in a loud but clear bass. "I expect great things from you so I will try give you the best possible tools to serve our village. Now while I know you didn't come here to do written tests, we still have to do a general assessment to see how much knowledge you have on the basic subjects like math and writing. Don't worry if you can't complete everything, you are not meant to."

With that he handed out the test sheets to everyone. Without wasting a second Takeshi started working on it after giving a quick thanks to the orphanage matron for teaching him to read and write at such an early age. The test consisted of 10 parts. Takeshi found the first three parts surprisingly easy as they didn't even require any knowledge, they were simply easy games testing their logic. The fourth, fifth and sixth posed a bit more of a challenge but he managed to complete those quickly as well because they were mostly simple math equations or a bit harder riddle like problems where one needed creative thinking to solve them.

He reached the seventh and eighth at the 30 minute mark, however those posed quite a challenge as the math problems were things he didn't really study back at the orphanage and only knew from a few glances he got in other books. Despite that he managed complete those in roughly 15 minutes. Takeshi spent the last 15 minutes on the ninth part which consisted mostly of logical puzzles but barely finished it before the time run out, leaving the last page untouched.

"Okay kiddos, that's time so give me those annoying papers," said Katsuro-sensei with a grin "Don't worry the next part will be a lot more fun as we will test you on the physical stuff!"

After he gathered the finished tests he led them down to the courtyard. On the way everyone started discussing the examination.

"Maaaan! Those question were so hard," groaned Ichirou "I barely got started on the fourth part, I hope they don't fail me."

"Idiot, they said it doesn't matter if we didn't finish it. My mom told me that they do it to know how good we are and also, if I didn't get further then the start of the fifth no way they fail you," responded Daichi with a smug expression "anyway how did you do Takeshi-san?"

"I dunno, but I didn't manage to finish it" he answered with a shrug while making sure to keep quiet about how he did, not wanting for them to feel bad.

"Mah, that's okay I will just ace the next part and then they will know how super I am!" yelled Ichiro as they arrived to the courtyard.

"Now listen up brats! The fun part comes now," shouted Katsuro-sensei while a sadistic glint entered his eye, already giving Takeshi a bad feeling "Your job will be to run laps around this field for the next hour and you will be happy to know that you can actually fail at his part! If I see anyone slacking they will be out the Academy door faster than they can say kunai!" he let out an evil grin here "Get to it!"

As one the whole pack of kids started sprinting away from the evil visage of their sensei… save one as Takeshi started running at an even tempo. 'If I have to run for that long I can't sprint or I will tire before the finish' he thought.

During the first few minutes there was a lot of chatter but soon the only thing that could be heard was their panting. By the time their sensei shouted "Half time" while counting the laps, most of the civilian children have already given up. This was when Takeshi started to put his late mother's advice to use 'Remember Shi-chan, if you channel you chakra softly through your body, you become stronger, faster and can run further! How cool is that?' and with it he started to overtake the Uchiha who was in the lead.

By the time the forty-fifth minute came around, only them and a Hyuga remained in the race. While the other two were gasping for air trying to keep up with him, Takeshi was merely panting so he decided to increase his pace leaving both of them to dust. All three of them finished the race bot he did it with more than three laps in the lead. To add insult to injury he merely leaned against the wall wheezing a bit, while the other two collapsed to the ground, both of them glaring daggers into him.

"Well done you three," said the towering chunin with an approving nod "Now I will say the names of those who failed:" here his grin almost split his face "No one! I lied! Hahaha!"

Getting a collective groan from his class, Takeshi shuddered at the satisfied face of the teacher. After everyone managed to get up, they had a 15 minute bathroom and food break, then ushered to the throwing range. Here they spent the next hour trying to hit their own target with kunai and shuriken while their sensei walked around giving them pointers.

When the hour was up they were led back into their classroom and given an hour long lunchbreak which was spent talking and resting their tired bodies before the rest of the day. It was almost funny how short their small respite felt as their sensei came back with the huge grin on his face that they already learned to fear.

"Now that you are as fresh as a daisy and full of energy," he said taking in their tired forms "you get to experience the fun part of your day: Taijutsu practice in which you will get to spar for a minute against each other! Follow me down and we will get started."

After they arrived to a big chalk circle the teacher started calling names off his list. Most of them were shouting and laughing at the spectacle but Katsuro noticed how Takeshi was looking intensely at the fights. 'Heh, so you realized how the clan kids know so much more then you and now you try to learn as much as possible before it's your turn. Hmm, let's see how you will do versus the Uchiha.'

"Okay next fight is Uchiha Jirou vs. Arakumo Takeshi" he said. The two of them walked up to the middle of the circle with an intense look on their face. It was obvious that no quarter would be given in this fight.

"Ready? Then fight!" came the command.

Instantly both of them burst into motion. With a few quick measured steps they reached other. The taller Uchiha boy immediately went for quick jabs to the head using his superior height and reach. In response Takeshi closed the distance while dodging the first two attacks and trying to hit the other boy's stomach. Jirou danced away from his younger classmate and using his training the seven year old answered with a roundhouse kick which Takeshi barely managed to evade with a step backwards stumbling a bit, feeling the other's sandal brush against his black hair.

Jirou sensing his advantage kept up the pressure, forcing him backwards to the edge of the circle with each exchange. 'I can't keep this up, he is better than me' thought the young orphan 'I need some space or I will get pushed out.' Watching intently the other boy as he gave ground, he looked for an opportunity.

'There!' Without a sound he suddenly tried to tackle the boy between two punches. The other boy barely realized in time his intention, managing to turn his body away a bit as they collided pushing Takeshi away and letting him back in the middle of the circle.

With an annoyed "Tchh!" sound the Uchiha went on the offense once more but he barely reached the other boy when their teacher's thundering voice stopped them.

"That's enough, time is up," he said with a nod "well done boys, make the seal of reconciliation and sit down for a bit."

"Well fought" came grudging compliment from the Uchiha, a small bit of respect showing in his eyes.

"You too" said Takeshi with a huge smile "Even if I had to run from you the whole fight, it was still fun!" And they sat down between their shocked classmates starting up a quite murmur among them as everyone was stunned by the (compared to them) incredibly fast paced fight.

After the class finished the last two spars they were allowed a short break and then led back into the main building and to a training room for their last lesson of the day. Here Katsuro-sensei went around and gave simple chakra control exercises to those who have already unlocked their chakra and got those who didn't started on unlocking it. By the end of it, only a few civilian children managed to.

"Okay brats, that's the end of this day, don't worry tomorrow won't be so short and we will have lots of fun together" looking amused at their glares he continued "Now shoo, I don't need you making mischief on the Academy grounds on your first day! And remember to be here at 8 o'clock sharp tomorrow!"

* * *

The spring sunset was lazily shining into the headmaster's office at their 18:00 meeting. Joining him, the 5 chunin teacher sat around the table ordering their thoughts.

"Well, let us begin," said the aged man while calmly sipping his tea "what is your opinion on them?"

"Class 1-A shows a lot of promise, the clan children are talented as usual and most of the civilian kids have an acceptable amount of ability. I think bar four, they will be deployable after the 3 year wartime curriculum" a stocky woman in her 50s answered.

"Similar situation here in 1-B, clan kids doing pretty good and most civilians are mediocre" came the lazy drawl from a Nara "Although I think we will have to kick out only two or three from mine."

"I guess my group was quite unlucky then, the clan kids are all good but there are at least seven future failures, maybe more" said the third chunin.

"Hmph. I will have to talk with the Logistics Division, someone messed up with the talent scouting," came the grouchy response from the headmaster "Continue."

"In class 1-D I am happy to say that I think every single one of them will make to wartime graduation standards" said the fourth head of class.

"In class 1-E clan kids are quite talented and the civilian side isn't lacking, I think there will be only two who won't be able to reach an adequate level of proficiency. Also I came across something rather interesting" Katsuro said with a grin that almost split his face in half.

"Oh? Do tell Katsuro-kun" said the headmaster with an interested glint in his eyes.

"I have a genius in my class. His name is Arakumo Takeshi and despite being merely five years old, in my opinion he could graduate in 2 years, maybe even one."

"Wasn't he the one Hokage-sama said to keep an eye on?" came the question from the old women "How did he do on the tests that you have such a fate in him?

"Indeed Akira-san he is the one," replied the Katsuro "Let me start with the written portion: He completed the first 9 parts of it almost without a single mistake. That means his cognitive ability is incredible. Translating that basically he as a 5 year old has the maturity and intelligence of a 12-13 years old," gathering his thoughts for a second he continued "On the endurance test even while not giving his all he did better than the majority of our third years and again let me remind you he is merely 5 years old. He also has insane hand-eye coordination, while at the start he couldn't hit the targets during throwing practice, by the end of the hour we spent there he was well within the top quarter of the class.

Taking a deep breath to tell the second part of day he continued "His raw ability shined the most during Taijutsu practice. Because of his mostly civilian upbringing I expected him to get destroyed by the Uchiha in my class and I also thought a bit of humbling would do him good. Yet he picked up enough in the fights before him, that with his reflexes, which for an untrained child are rather good, he managed to hold out for the whole minute and almost managed to take down the Uchiha with a surprise tackle. What finally sold me on the fact that he is a once in a generation genius is his chakra. His chakra pool is almost as large as an average graduating genin and while his control is lacking that can be easily improved upon.

"What do you propose the Katsuro-san, should we move him up a class?" asked the Nara who was wide awake by now.

"I think we should leave him for a month or two here to catch him up on the basics then bump him up a class" said the bear like man "Remember he has almost zero training in ninjustu, taijutsu and shuriken jutsu. I think in time he can catch up and surpass even the best of his peers no problem.

"Very well, then that is what we shall do and I will inform Hokage-sama about him" said the old man "If there is nothing else then this meeting is adjourned."

* * *

A month after the start of the Academy year found Uchiha Jirou practicing on the throwing yard after they were let out at the end of the school day.

"Mind if I join?" asked him Takeshi happily.

"Hn. You always do anyway" came the response.

They continued throwing shuriken at the targets in a comfortable silence. They both have been doing it each they since they started studying at the Academy. After another half an hour it was the Uchiha who broke the silence.

"You aren't from a clan" he said in between throws.

"No, I am not" came the energetic response from Takeshi.

The next few minutes passed without a sound, other than the kunai and shuriken hitting the posts with quiet thunks.

"Why do you practice so hard? You train even more than I do" continued his previous thought Jirou.

"Hmm. I think because I am an orphan," came the now much more quiet answer from the younger boy "You know because you are from a clan you can't see it, but back in the orphanage every week there were a few more of us. And behind each new kid I can see their loss of a parent. I don't want to see more of them to cry, so I train because if I can help Konoha just a little bit by being as good as I can, maybe the war will be over a little bit sooner.

"Hn."

Takeshi gave a small smile at his response. 'An Uchiha to his core.' They spent another few minutes practicing then this time he was who broke the silence.

"Wanna spar? Only you and that Hyuga can keep up with me anymore."

"Hn. That's because you are getting better too quickly" Jirou answered.

They settled into their own stances as a wind swept up a bit of dust between them in the afternoon sun and on a signal only heard by them they dashed toward each other…

* * *

Takeshi walked towards his new classroom. It has been 2 months since the start of the Academy and this day Katsuro-sensei told him to go to another place as he got bumped up a grade. He arrived to his destination roughly 5 minutes after eight. He could hear that they have already started their lesson so he knocked on the door.

"Come in" yelled an old man's voice from inside so he stepped in. "Ahh, Arakumo Takeshi-kun, I was waiting for you. You can sit down there at the front row," the sound rose at the new arrival of a 5 year old who looked incredibly small compared to the group of eight and nine year olds.

"Quiet down kids. He is joining our class because he skipped a grade. I expect you to welcome and help him if he needs it, now let us get back to our lesson. After the end of the First Shinobi world war…

* * *

Once again Takeshi was sitting in a new classroom. Eight months after starting at the Academy, he skipped another grade arriving to the graduate level class. He made a lot of friends in his second class unlike his first one where he only really got along with Jirou so he was a bit sad about leaving them. After spending 3 months studying with the third years, who mostly consisted of 9 and 10 year olds (expect him with as he was nearing six in a few months), they graduated and were waiting to get their assignments. In celebration he bought himself a whole new outfit which consisted of a long sleeved dark blue shirt with a mesh shirt underneath and black pants which were taped to his ankles. His clothes were completed with a pair of black shinobi sandals, a pouch on his right leg and a hitai-ate on his forehead. So here he sat as their sensei Okuro Daimi finally arrived roughly five minutes late.

"Quiet down kids, you are ninjas now so act like it," the women in her 50s said "now those who I call did well enough to get into teams with jonin sensei. The rest of you will join our proud Genin Corps but before that allow me to congratulate our rookie of the year Arakumo Takeshi! Well done kid" here she let smile grace her features.

"Anyway Team One will be Hyuga Hadori, Akimichi Curumi and Asagi Genbiro. Team Two will be Uchiha Amaru, Senju Kimiro and Nara Shindo. Team Three will be Arakumo Takeshi, Yamanaka Inoko and Sarutobi Shota. You nine remain here until your sensei comes for you, everyone else come after me and I will lead you to your new instructors. May the Will of Fire be with you.

The others barely left the room a tall men walked in. He was wearing the standard Konoha issued uniform. He had short black hair and start of a beard on his face making his appearance feel a bit unkempt but there was a cold steel in his blue eyes that made every one of them sit a bit straighter.

"Team Three meet me on the roof. You have 3 minutes." and he disappeared in a Shunshin.

For a second Team Three sat there in a stunned silence by the quick orders, then they started a mad dash towards the door. They arrived with only a few seconds to spare, making their sensei give them a nod in approval.

"Good, you are on time. Let us begin with introductions. My name is Asado Kenta and I am 24 years old. I like to train, spend time developing my abilities and cooking. I dislike people who waste my time and traitors. My current goal is to make you into competent chunins, who can survive this war. You are next Yamanaka."

"Hi! My name is Yamanaka Inoko and I just turned 10." the blond haired girl said in a considerably softer voice then their sensei's even tone" I like genjutsu, my family techniques and my clan. I dislike getting up early and my dream is to have a huge family one day. Uhm, I hope we get along" she finished while pulling shyly on her long sleeved mesh which could be barely seen from under her brown long-sleeved shirt. After she finished their sensei gestured towards the Sarutobi to make his introduction.

"Hi guys! My name is Sarutobi Shota and I'm nine years old!" basically shouted the brown haired kid. He wore dark blue pants, a grey T-shirt and there were wrappings around his forarms. "I like cool things, fire jutsus, fires and blowing stuff up! My dislikes are rainy days 'cuz they make using fire techniques hard! My dream is to make my Clan proud and become a jonin before 18!"

"Now you small stuff" came the command from the jonin.

"Hi, my name is Arakumo Takeshi and I am five years old," he said with a smile "I like the kids back at the orphanage, training, studying the ninja arts and the village. I dislike this war. My goal is to help Konoha end this war as soon as possible."

"Now that we know each other I will inform you about our timetable," here his voice got a grim undertone" We are at war so the village can't afford a high level jonin like me to stay away from the front lines for too long. We will have little more than a month before we head out so we will spend that time in an intense boot camp to bring you up to an acceptable level. While probably we will get an assignment where you won't be in the direct line of combat, I want you to be able to survive at least long enough to get to your comrades. That will be all for today, meet me at training ground 10 tomorrow at seven o'clock. Dismissed." and with that he body flickered away. For the next few second none of them spoke a bit stunned by their sensei's abruptness.

"So guys wanna get a snack together to get to know each other? If we are gonna be team mates we should spend a bit of time together" said Takeshi getting up from his seat on the bench.

"Uhm, Tou-sama said tha-that I should go home after my sensei told me my assignment so I really shou-…"

"Awwww come on! Don't be a stick in them mud!" yelled Shota with a huge grin as he too left his seat "We are the SUPER awesome Team Three! You can't just leave us hanging like that?!"

"Well, uhm, okay I guess… half an hour probably won't hurt" answered the girl.

"That's the spirit! I know a cool dango place nearby! You coming gaki?" he said as he glanced back at Takeshi.

"Yes I am" he replied as he couldn't help but smile at his team mate's energetic behavior as they started walking down with the Sarutobi in the middle, flanked by the Yamanaka on the left and by Takeshi on the right.

"So anyway guys what do you think about our sensei? He was cool right? And super super serious, I bet he is suuuuuper strong" said Shota excitedly.

"Yea, he was pretty serious but I think he will be a good sensei, he seemed to know a lot," responded the five year old "Inoko what do you think about him?"

"Ano, I just hope he won't be as strict as he looked, he looked pretty scary there" came the shy answer from the demurely smiling blonde.

"Relax, he probably just got back from the frontline, my Jiji told me that most ninja are like that when they arrive. And if not we will just have to get him to loosen up!" the older boy yelled as they walked out the entrance of the academy "Look there is the dango place I told you guys about, I used to come here a lot with Jiji" he pointed at a stand a bit down the street.

"So what kind of ninjas do you want to be?" asked Takeshi while they walked.

"Well obviously I want to be a fire ninjutsu specialist! Mostly because I suck at taijutsu and genjutsu…" he trailed off looking a bit sulky, but he instantly perked up as he continued "But that doesn't matter because fire jutsu are AWESOME and I am going to be the best at using them!" he yelled drawing a few amused looks drawing a few amused looks from the ninja around them as they walked into the dango shop.

"Use your indoor voice, idiot" admonished him the younger boy as they sat down.

"Don't tell me what to do gaki!" he yelled back at him.

"Ano, I think you should be a bit quieter, too Sarutobi-san" said the blond in a soft voice.

"Even you Inoko-chan" muttered Shota in a much lower voice, now listening to them "Anyway none of that Sarutobi stuff, we are teammates now so just calm Shota.

"And call me Takeshi"

"Okay Takeshi-san, Shota-san" replied the Yamanaka with a smile, happy that her teammates were so easy to get along with.

They spent the next 15 minutes eating their dango and talking about small stuff like what each of them usually did in their past time, where they lived and what they were expecting of their training. Takeshi was pretty happy with his new team because despite him being a lot younger they treated him like an equal. After they finished eating they spent a few more minutes talking, then each went on their own way after Inoko reminding the others not to be late tomorrow.

* * *

In the next two weeks to simply put they were worked to the ground, intense endurance and Taijutsu training (which consisted mostly of constant sparring) with chakra control exercises added, like tree walking. Every day Team Three felt like they were put through a meat grinder, although this helped them forge a closer friendship with each other, after all few things create stronger bonds then collective misery. While the training was hard they were all happy because they could feel themselves improving leaps and bounds, especially Takeshi who for the first time of his life got the chance for highly personalized instructions. On the start of their third weak something different happened from the norm.

"Sensei, sensei! Will you show us some awesome fire jutsus today?" Came the customary question from the Sarutobi.

"What did I do to Hokage-sama to give me this team," muttered in response to their antics Kenta-sensei but you could see a bit of fondness in his eyes despite his usual neutral expression.

"Please Shota-kun don't annoy sensei, I don't want another punishment day…" said Inoko with a shudder at the memory of a day when the Sarutobi asked it one too many time. Their sensei "showed them" fire ninjutsu… which meant chasing the three around the field while literally spewing fire.

"Actually I would like to learn some ninjutsu, too" trailed off Takeshi with a hopeful look on his face.

"I guess you brats earned it. Very well" here he created two shadow clones "Sarutobi you will get your fire technique finally. Takeshi you will get one as well as you are both fire natured. Inoko-chan my clone will teach you a new genjutsu.

After the short explanation his clones led Inoko into the forest while taking Shota to the opposite side of the nearby lake with a body flicker.

"You have already gotten a small taste of fire manipulation in the past 2 weeks so you should be ready for this" said the jonin to Takeshi who was listening intently to his words "Despite being young, you have the biggest chakra reserves of the three of you. While this would allow you to use bigger jutsus then the others, your age means you recover chakra a lot slower so I will teach you a lower cost technique: the _Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu_. It hits hard enough that if used correctly can take out a jonin of a fight but low enough in cost that you can use it a few times in a fight. Now the hand seals are Boar, Horse and….

 _linebreak_

If Asado Kenta was honest he was more than satisfied with the team he got. All three of them were quite talented and motivated. They also had good team dynamics: Sarutobi the hyperactive kid, with boundless energy, Takeshi the small genius who stepped up as the "leader" of their little squad, a bit on the serious side, yet always ready for some fun. Finally Inoko, the glue holding the two together. The shy girl's attitude balanced out the other two kids' strong personalities quite well, making them act like a well-oiled machine from the get to go. All in all they were a good team and he grew quite fond of them during their time as a squad.

If he had to pick his favorite it had to be Takeshi. The kid was a certifiable genius but there was a difference between reading it in a report and seeing it in action. He got him to use two kunais in close combat, one in each hand to make up his lack of reach and strength. The kid in just a week became a veritable whirlwind of steel, surprising even him with his learning curve. He was easily the best of the three in taijutsu despite being the youngest and he could already see him becoming a fearsome foe in close combat when he was older.

The amount of chakra the now six year old had at his disposal was also huge even compared to genin, it was almost chunin level and his control of it was already aound a skilled genin's. He also had an eye for detail making him quite good at dispelling genjutsus. Even if he didn't start him on them yet, later on he would probably became quite good at using illusionary techniques on his own.

Where he truly shined was ninjutsu. His hand seals were swift and precise and if he didn't know better he could have said the kid had the sharingan, that was how fast he was learing. Already he could do a pretty good Shunshin, 2 fire jutsus and he was already learning the shuriken kage bushin no jutsu for a wide range attack.

He also had a surprising amount of motivation for a kid his age but that was to be expected as the psychological profile already said he had a slight trauma rooted in losing his parents and seeing all the other orphans. Still his determination to improve and protect Konoha was admirable.

With a sigh he body flickered to the clearing. After five weeks they have received orders to head out to an outpost in Kusa. While it was not directly on the front line it was near enough to get some action every now and then. As he arrived he saw his team stand in attention seeing the steely look in his eyes, forgoing their usual antics.

Without greetings he cut to the chase "We recived our orders. We are to head out to an outpost near Iwa with a small contingent of shinobi returning to the frontline so we will meet at 9 o'clock at the Main gate. Pack for long term deployment. Dismissed."

His young soldiers obeyed his commands without hesitation and ran out of the training ground. 'Tch, this is why I hate war, kids all over the battlefield' thought the jonin with a slight grimace after they left, then he too departed from the clearing to get ready. After all war awaits for none.

 **Author note:  
Hi Gomdzsabbar here! ****Love it? Hate it? Just as always I welcome any kind of critic. Also what do you think of the short fighting scene?  
In the next chapter things will speed up quite a bit with them arriving in the middle of the Second Shinobi World War. Also my apologies for any grammatical mistakes I made in this chapter, if you find one be sure to point it out so I can improve. The next chapter will be out in a few days.  
Anyway I hope you stay tuned and Merry Christmas!  
**


	4. First Contact

**Chapter 3**

The travel to the camp could be described with two words: tiring and boring. It was tiring because they were the only genins in the company so the chunin level travel speed tested their endurance quite a bit and it was boring because no one really spoke to each other during it. When Inoko asked their sensei why everyone was so grim he told them "It has been three years since the start of the Second Shinobi World War so this was likely their first and only break from the battlefield. They are all mentally preparing themselves to join the fray once more."

Their arrival to the camp was when they got the first glimpse of the reason of their superiors' anxiety. It was situated in a big meadow in a circular fashion with tents lining up in neat rows, however the important part wasn't its layout. Shinobi and kunoichi could be seen moving around each with quick purpose most of them sporting at least a small injury or two.

What truly hit Takeshi in the chest was the look on their faces. Beyond their serious expression one could see the dull and soulless look of broken men and women who went through hell. 'So this is war,' he thought 'I am fighting so I won't have to see the despair like this back home.'

The new arrivals set up their tents under 10 minutes and got to their new assignments with frightening efficiency. Within 20 minutes everyone already knew their new mission and started on it. Takeshi was sent to help maintain the traps while Inoko and Shota were to help with the injured at the medical tent. Kenta-sensei was called to the commanding tent which he didn't leave until late evening. This was how Team Three's life at the Chihaga outpost began.

* * *

It has been three months since they joined the war. Their sensei still trained them whenever he had the time from his frequent scouting missions but as it turned out he was one of the best at recon so these sessions were rarer than they would have liked. Still they tried to make the most of their limited time.

There was also a lull in the war, the calm before another big push. In the last six months instead of big battles, both sides turned to another tool: guerilla warfare. They tried to find the chink in the other's armor and even if it was as of yet unsuccessful, they kept looking for that small advantage to exploit.

All three of the genins started to get more serious missions, chief among them the courier jobs which consisted of relaying information between outposts, a job where their lack of combat power wasn't as crippling.

Currently Takeshi was jumping from branch to branch with three chunin. Their mission was to deliver intel to one of the camps. While they were a bit closer than usual to the "danger" zone (meaning the no man's land where most of the small skirmishes happened) it was easy for him to relax between the towering chunins, after all nothing really happened during these delivery missions. This relaxation led to a split second of laziness making him lag behind the others a jump but ironically that bout of laziness was what saved his life.

The chunins barely touched down when an explosion suddenly devoured the tree they landed on, making Takeshi freeze in his tracks on the branch he just landed. After a split second of looking at the plummeting bodies of his charred comrades, a voice broke him out of his shock.

"Dammit, we missed one" said a voice from a tree on the other side of the smokescreen.

"Relax it's just a kid, I will silence him while you three clean those tree huggers up" came the answer from another.

Takeshi didn't need any more motivation to run so he started a mad dash back where he came from. While glancing behind he could see an Iwa chunin jumping out of the smoke and following him. Suddenly his senses screamed at him making him miss the next branch. Not a millisecond later a hail of kunai flew through his previous spot. With a tumble he managed to safely land on the ground however by the time he stood up the chunin had already landed on the other side of the small clearing.

"Look kid I don't want to do this anymore than you do, so if you give up I will grant you a quick death" came the grim voice from the chunin.

During the short "speech" thoughts flashed through Takeshi's head at a frightening speed. 'He is stronger and faster than me so I can't outrun him. I need to delay somehow so I can get away. I can't beat him with skill, so I will have to outthink him' so with a deep breath he answered.

"Sorry oji-san but I can't give up. They said you are bad guys so I have to beat you up" he responded purposefully speaking childishly and letting out a cute pout, trying to get the Iwa shinobi to underestimate him as much as possible.

He barely finished speaking when the other ninja blurred towards him. 'Fast!' He thought as the first punch almost took off his head. The second and third swiftly followed making him use every bit of his speed and agility to dodge them. The forth attack was a kick which barely brushed against him, yet still sent his small frame flying a few meters.

'I can't keep this up' he thought while landing on his feet and trying to force air into his bruised lungs. 'I won't survive a straight up fight against this guy' so in the short time it took for the other ninja to regain his footing after the kick he started running up on the tree behind him. The Iwa chunin followed hot on his heels barely a few meters behind him. As soon as he reached a thick enough branch, he jumped off of it to the next tree.

A short chakra spike alerted him, making him turn around on the wide branch he landed and rising his hands in defense. Just in time too, as the enemy shinobi suddenly appeared front of him in a body flicker with his fist already cocked back and punching forward. Takeshi's quick guard saved his life as the punch only broke his left forearm instead of shattering his ribs while throwing him directly at the lower branch of another tree.

Not giving him any time to recover his enemy followed him barely a second later. 'It's now or never' he thought in desperation as he landed on the branch, however it appeared as if he had lost his balance and looked like he started to fall with his left foot barely connected to the side of the branch. Arriving at that moment and seeing an opportunity the Iwa nin reached out with a cold face to grab the neck of the genin however when he was about to reach the falling youngster a few things happened in quick succession.

Takeshi suddenly channeled chakra into his left foot, making it stick on the branch and using it to pull him out and down of his enemy's range with only his leg strength while throwing a kunai towards his face. The older man quickly grabbed the weakly thrown weapon however suddenly soft sizzling could be heard. 'Gothca!' Takeshi thought while letting go of the tree with his chakra as he activated the explosive tag on the handle of a kunai while plummeting to the ground. He barely managed to get out of the explosion radius when it exploded.

"AAAAAAARGGHHH!" a pained cry could be heard as a loud boom rocked the otherwise silent forest. A form tumbled out of the smoke making Takeshi widen his eyes as he landed on his feet. 'He is still alive after that?' One of the chunin's arms hang uselessly at his side while the other was covering half of his badly burned face.

"You little shit! When I get my a hands on you I will-" not waiting for the other shinobi to gather himself Takeshi ran up a tree and jumped away as fast as he could.

'He was disoriented so he shouldn't be able to start chasing me instantly but his teammates must have heard his cry. At best I have a 30 second head start,' he thought while jumping from tree to tree as fast as he could, cradling his injured arm 'We are near the patrol line so if I am lucky the jonin running the perimeter will come to check out the explosion' and with that he popped a soldier pill in his mouth and pushed on.

The next five minutes were perhaps the longest in his life, each second he could feel the four chakra signatures catching up to him, only the adrenalin in his veins allowing him to stay ahead but Takeshi knew he couldn't keep up this mad dash much longer. Just as he started to slow down he saw a small glint of light reflecting off of a hitai-ate. 'They must be the jonin patrol… at least I hope so or I'm a goner 'Takeshi thought heading towards them ' _four-hostile-chunin_ ' he signaled with his working right hand as he blurred by their hiding spots.

As the Iwa ninja arrived not even 5 seconds behind him all four were suddenly frozen on the tree Takeshi noticed the forehead protector.

"Kagemano no Jutsu: Success" came a quiet voice making him stop in relief and collapse gasping for air on the branch he just landed.

Less than a second later an Uchiha jonin blurred before him with an activated sharingan, making his stone cold expression even more terrifying.

"Report genin!" came the command.

Takeshi tried to answer as coherently as he could while gasping for air "Four man courier mission _*pant*_ Chihaga to Gaeshi _*pant*_ ambush _*pant*_ only I survived _*pant*_ all four _*pant*_ enemy _*pant*_ chased after me _*pant*_."

"Okay, rest now son you earned it" responded the older ninja with a nod but Takeshi barely heard it as his vision suddenly swam and he lost consciousness, the strain of the last half an hour finally catching up to his young body.

* * *

The first thing Takeshi felt when he woke up was the soft feeling of a bed. Next came the pain. It felt as if each time he took a breath someone was stabbing a kunai into his chest. Slowly he opened his eyes, the green ceiling of a medical tent greeting his eyes. The six year old tried to sit up but a stab of pain convinced him to lay back down, instead he tried to call for someone.

"Haaagh" he tried to say but his throat too parched to really form words.

"Oh you are awake!" a smiling iryo-nin entered his vision. She had shoulder length brown hair and wore the standard Konoha chunin uniform. "Let me get you some water, using a soldier pill this young makes you really thirsty.

Takeshi chugged down the cup of water she gave and tried speaking again "Thank you, how long was I out? And where am I?"

"A little more than a day," she answered "you are at Ugo base on the front lines, it was our patrol that found you"

"How bad is it? 'Cuz I feel like I tried to stop an angry Akimichi" Takeshi said with a grimace.

"You have a broken left arm, thankfully I healed it up somewhat because it was a clean break but you won't have full use of it for a week. You also have a lot of small bruises and cuts presumably from the explosions and one giant bruise on your torso with two broken ribs, altho' I managed to fix those because they were barely cracked "the doctor counted off his injuries "All in all you will have to stay in bed for about 3 days and recover fully in about a week."

"Heh, I guess that kick actually broke my ribs. Anyway when am I supposed to report?" the genin asked.

"Well we managed to mostly piece together what happened but the commander, Orochimaru-sama said to call him when you woke so I will call him here now if he is available" and with that she left the young shinobi alone.

While she was gone Takeshi tried to order his thoughts so he would be able to relay what happened when his superior came. He didn't have to wait for long because five minutes later a man in his twenties walked into the tent. He had long black hair, a deathly pale face with yellow eyes that bore into him like they could see into his soul. He was wearing a grey steel plated armor that looked like it went through a war or two.

"Ah Takeshi-kun, I am happy to finally meet you after hearing so much about you from Kenta-san." said the Sannin in a silky voice "I would like you to tell what happened during your mission because according to our intel Iwa was supposed to be relatively passive in that area."

"Yes, sir. Our mission was to deliver a status report from Chihaga outpost to the Gaeshi communication center. Roughly at the half of our journey I accidently lagged behind a jump and before I knew my teammates before me got blown up. The enemy was a four men team of chunins. After they realized I survived one of them, the guy with burns on his face told the other three to clean up then came after me. I managed to get away from him by stunning him with an explosive tag but soon they started chasing me. I ran from them for around five minutes, with them almost catching up by the time a patrol saved me" reported Takeshi in a quick straightforward fashion.

"Hm… Did you notice something during the attack? Perhaps something that stuck out that shouldn't happen during an ambush?" asked Orochimaru with a calculating look on his face.

Takeshi took a bit of time to go through what happened once more in his head while the jonin waited patiently.

"Actually there is something" he said after a minute "I don't know how to say it but the whole thing felt kinda sloppy? rushed? Like they just happened to be in the area and had to set up everything quickly. Yeah, that's what it felt like at least, also they didn't cut off escape paths, they were just hiding behind a tree clumped up so it was really poorly executed."

"I see," a proverbial light bulb could be seen above the sanin's head "so THAT'S why Iwa's movements have been so weird the last couple of weeks… Thank you Takeshi-kun and good luck during your recovery" and without saying anything he left in a Shunshin leaving a confused genin and iryo-nin behind.

"Well I don't know what happened but it looks like it helped Orochimaru-sama so I think I will just go back to sleep…" the boy said.

"But not before eating! You need the nutrients to recover so wait a sec while I bring you something. And don't you dare to go to sleep before I get back!"

"Hai, hai I wouldn't dream of it."

* * *

 _9 days later_

Around 700 shinobi were assembled at the Chihaga camp Takeshi among them, but despite the number of humans in the clearing you could've heard a pin drop. Before the army of ninja their commander, the snake sannin stood on a rock using it as a makeshift podium while addressing them.

"A bit more than a week ago we acquired vital intel about Iwagakure's movements which as many of you already knew, made little sense. They have been trying to scout out our northern flank to prepare for a fast-push to then use that to get behind our lines and attack us at two fronts. Luckily, they messed up which let us notice and capture one of their scouting squads" he said with a drawl while letting out a small smirk "The purpose of this army here is to ambush their "surprise attack", then after eliminating the opposition turn it on them by filling in the hole in their defenses they left behind and use it as a staging ground for a pincer attack to tear them apart. If we do it fast enough we can break their whole army. Your division commanders will have your detailed instructions. This can be the battle that brings us the victory so steel you hearts, ready your kunai and may the Will of Fire guide you in battle!" with that he stepped down making everyone burst in action as they gathered around one of the four division commanders.

As Takeshi made his way towards his, a Nara jonin he felt could feel the anticipation in the air and see the hope in the eyes of the older ninjas that this maybe the turning point. While trying to get into position he suddenly noticed a familiar mop of blond hair making him smile.

"Inoko-chan!" he called out.

"Takeshi-kun! I thought you were injured and wouldn't be able to come" she said while elbowing the Sarutobi who had been talking animatedly to one of his older clansman.

"Ow, why did you do tha- Oh so you made it here gaki?!" was the instant reaction of the older boy.

"Who you are calling a brat, you brat! You are only like 3 years older than me so if I'm a brat then you are one too!" and in a bout of a childishness he shot out his tongue towards his team mate"

"Why you little-"

"Alright, tone it down. I know it's exciting and all but it's too troublesome to speak above all of you" came the lazy order from the Nara jonin in his 40s "My name is Nara Shinaru and I will be the one to give you your orders. I expect my words to be followed to the letter, there is a reason I say them. Now, our job will be both the easiest and the hardest. The plan is for the other three division to attack them form the front and the sides which means the first part of our mission is simply to shut the cage so to speak and cut off their escape path. This will be the easy part, the hard one is that our enemy has around 800 shinobi which we expect to cut in half before they reach us while retreating. That still means we will be at a severe numbers disadvantage but they will be in a disarray so that means we have pretty good odds to stop them.

Here he paused looking over them slowly, all traces of laziness gone from his posture "I hope you understand that victory rests on our shoulders. We need to hold them back until the other 3 divisions crash into their backline when they run into us. For this to be possible we will be using a modified barrier-net strategy. The Nara, a few ninjutsu specialist and all of the genjutsu users we could get will be the "net" disrupting and immobilizing the enemy with a few small squads defending them from strays and everyone else making up the barrier, the shield that stops them. Now I will tell you the squads each of you are assigned to: Kaminari S…"

Team Three got placed together with three chunin and two jonin as "stray cathers" with another squad of similar constitution other than the small difference that the other team only had 2 genins in it. The commander Nara Shinaru shortly joined them after everyone got their orders and decided to say a few words to them.

"You guys are made up mostly of recovering people because this will be probably the least combat intensive position so you should be able to handle it. Still if a few Iwa nin make it through I expect you to give your all, even your life for the protection of the backline, they are the key part of our defense" he said quickly, then went to say a quick word to every part of the formation.

As everyone waited to get the order to move out, Takeshi tried to calm his breathing and his panic. 'This is real, I am going into a battle. I don't want to die. I don't want to die! I don't want to die!' Suddenly a big hand was put on his shoulder in a comforting manner.

One of the squads' jonin squeezed it softly but surely "Stay calm kid, we will look out for you" he smiled kindly "you will do fine just don't panic. That goes for you too Yamanaka, Sarutobi! If you get into combat just try to stall until one of us can finish your opponent off."

"Yessir" the members of Team. The jonin's words actually helped Takeshi in calming down. The gut wrenching feeling slowly left his body and got replaced with quiet determination 'He is right I won't be alone in this' looking at his right he could see the other two sporting similar looks 'we will survive!'

After five more minutes Orochimaru's voice rang out "Move out!" and with that the army of Konoha nin leapt into the trees following their leaders. Despite the several hundreds of people moving at once, the forest was suddenly eerily silent as they ghosted trough the canopy more akin to shadows than actual humans. In their natural habitat the warriors of the Leaf were little more than mirages in the light of the setting sunrays that broke through the green roof of the forest. There would be no stopping them tonight for the deadly beast that was Konoha finally smelled the weakness of her prey and she wasn't letting it go.

 **Author note:  
Hi Gomdzsabbar here! Love it? Hate it? As I have said before this story is a try at a realistic genius story type. This means I am trying to portray Takeshi realisticly, that is why he got destoyed by the 20 smoething year old chunin: he may be a genius but he is still a genin, even if a talented one. In the show powerlevels are kinda random but in my opinion an experienced chunin should beat a genin anytime. Anyway how was the fight scene? I worked quite a bit on it but as I have never written one I would appriciate any feedback you guys can give me!  
The next Chapter will be out around New Year so see you guys then and hope you enjoyed it!  
**


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